Local pub customers charged twice ... but don't blame the pub

Customers of a rural pub on the outskirts of Preston found themselves charged twice for meals.

They were among thousands of people thought to have been affected by a processing problem affecting customers in businesses across the country..

Michael Worden, landlord of the Nabs Head

Three customers contacted Michael Worden, landlord of the Nabs Head at Samlesbury, near Preston, to report the billing error and he posted messages on Facebook and Twitter alerting other customers.

He stressed no duplicate payments would come to the Nabs Head.

Today he said: "I'm sure there are possibly more (customers) affected but only three people directly contacted me. It's a national issue. I've never received two payments - the payment processor had some kind of technical issue. Most of them should have received a full refund by now. If they haven't received a full refund by the end of tonight they should contact their banks directly to chase it up."

Michael's statement on social media told customers : "We have been informed of an issue with our credit/debit card payment processor FDMS where by customers may have been charged twice on either the 29th or 30th August, this will show up on your statement as two identical payments
"The second payment has not (and will not) be paid to us and will be refunded directly to your account asap. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but this is out of our hands and is an issue with FDMS that they are working to fix. We are unfortunately not the only business affected."

FDMS (First Data Merchant Solutions) issued a statement saying: "On Wednesday 29 August 2018, First Data Merchant Solutions (FDMS) experienced a technical issue which has caused some customers to be charged twice for a single transaction."

It added that customers affected had been customer had been automatically refunded.

The error is reported to have occurred due to an issue with a particular card terminal run by Cardnet, a joint venture between Lloyds Bank and First Data.

LLoyds Bank Cardnet has issued a statement apologising. It said: "We anticipate that refunds to cardholders charged twice will be completed by Tuesday 4th September.
Cardnet sincerely apologises for the issue and the inconvenience caused, we continue to work closely with all parties to resolve this issue swiftly"

Its statement noted: "On Friday 1st September, Cardnet became aware of an incident whereby the settlement file for transactions taken Wednesday 29th August by APACS 40 (standalone terminal) merchants was duplicated and the settlement file for transactions taken Thursday 30th August was consequently not submitted.

"This has resulted in merchants receiving incorrect settlement amounts, based on both the duplicate file and late payment of Thursday’s funds. In some cases, this will have been an overpayment of expected settled funds, in others an underpayment. In addition, and importantly, cardholders (customers) of Cardnet’s impacted merchants may also have been debited twice for transactions made on Wednesday."